have just mentioned, is a feast for the entered the chapel, where I found what family of the Neophyte. When they may be called a real butchery. proceed to the sacrifice, a certain num- On one side of the saint's sepulchre ber of boys are assembled, who carry were placed five men dressed only in handkerchiefs, sashes, and even miserable shirts and drawers, with their sleeves rags, which they fasten, like flags, to turned up to their shoulders. Four of long sticks or reeds; this group is follow- these men were sitting in front of the ed by music, consisting of two bag-pipes, door of the chapel, and the fifth was which are played in unison, but not, standing at the side of the door, in order therefore, less discordant, and two or to receive the little victims. Two of more drums of a very hoarse sound, a those, who were sitting, held the instruband sufficiently disagreeable to an ear ments of the sacrifice; the other two had accustomed to European music, as mine each a purse or little bag, filled with an unfortunately had been. The father, or astringent powder. the nearest relations, follow with the sons invited, who surround the child, mounted on a horse, of which the saddle is covered with a red cloth.

a

Behind these four ministers was pergroup of about twenty children, of all ages and colours, who had also their part to play, as we shall see presently; and, at the distance of some yards, an orchestra, of the same kind as I have described before, was executing its discordant tunes.

If the child be too young, he is carried in the arms of a man on horseback. All the rest are on foot. The Neophyte is generally covered with a sort of cloak made of white linen, and over this cloak Every time that a Neophyte arrived, he wears a red one, adorned with vari- his father, or the person who was there ous ribands, and a fillet or band of silk is to represent him, walked before him, and tied round his head. A man walks on entering the chapel, kissed the head of each side of the horse with a silk hand- the operating minister, and made him kerchief in his hands, with which he some compliments. The child was then drives away the flies from the child and brought forward, and immediately seizfrom his horse. Some women, wrapt up ed by the strong-armed man, who was in their enormous Hhaïks or bournous, close the procession.

Though there were circumcisions every day during the festival of Mouloud, yet I waited till the last, because I was as sured that they would then be more numerous; and indeed on that day the streets were full of people, going and returning in crowds, and of soldiers with their guns.

appointed to receive the victims; and he, having lifted up the gown of the child, presented him to the operator. At this moment the music began to sound with its loudest noise; and the children, who were seated behind the ministers, started suddenly up, and shouted with great vociferation, to attract the attention of the victim, and, by the motions of their fingers, directed his eyes to the roof of the chapel. Stunned with all this noise, the child lifted up his head, and that very moment the officiating priest laid hold of the prepece, and pulling it with force, clipped it off with one motion of the scissars. Another

At ten in the morning I left my house, and pressing through the crowd, I went towards the chapel. I found on my way groups of three or four or more children, who were going to endure the ceremony. The country was covered with horses, soldiers, inhabitants, Arabs, and immediately threw a little astringent collections of women, entirely enveloped powder on the wound, and a third covin their concealing garments, and sitting ered it with lint, which he tied on by a in hollows of the ground, or under the bandage; and the child was carried shade of trees. These women, as the away.

children passed by, uttered cries exceed- The whole operation did not last half ingly shrill, which are always considered a minute, though it was executed in a from them as signs of mirth and of encouragement.

After having reached the hermitage I crossed a yard crowded with people, and

very clumsy manner. The noise made by the children and the music prevented me from hearing the cries of the victims, though I was close to them. However,

their gestures proved sufficiently what lamps on them. they suffered.

In general the porches Every child was after- and staircases are very shabby, though the house be of the largest size.

wards put on the back of a woman, who took him home, covered with her Hhaïk or bournous; and followed by the same train with which he had arrived.

FOOD OF MOROCCO.

The form of the houses consists always of a square court, of which two, three, or all four sides are surrounded by a gallery. A very narrow room of the length of this gallery runs parallel with it; but these rooms have generally no windows, nor any other opening than the door in the middle which opens on the gallery; hence all their dwellings are dark and badly aired. The roofs of the houses are flat, and covered with the same kind

The principal food of the inhabitants of all the kingdom of Morocco, consists of a sort of paste called couscoussou; it is made only of flour and water, kneaded to a hard paste, which is divided into small pieces of a cylindrical form, as big as a finger; these are afterwards reduced to grains, by slicing them, and by divid- of plaister as the floors of the rooms. ing them dexterously with the hands; The walls are made of lime, plaster, they are then spread upon a napkin, and and stones, but more commonly of a exposed to the sun, or to the open air, to kind of greasy clay beat up with water. be hardened. To boil this couscoussou, In order to erect such a wall, two planks it is put with butter in a kind of pot, are placed perpendicularly with a suffiwhose bottom is full of small holes. cient space between them, into which is This pot is placed over a larger one, thrown the clay kneaded with water till which the poor fill with water only, but it has acquired the consistency of paste. the better sort add some meat and poul- Two men then beat it down between try. This double pot being placed be- the two planks with their clubs; they fore the fire, the steam which ascends accompany their work with songs, to from the lower one enters through the which their clubs beat time. The diffiholes of the upper, and boils the cous- culty of procuring strong beams obliges coussou above. If there be meat in the them to construct very narrow rooms, in lower part, it is served up on a plate, order to make the small wood of the surrounded and covered with the cous- country answer their purpose. They coussou, which forms thus a sort of pyr- put over it a bed of reeds, which they amid, without any gravy or soup; the cover with plaster about a foot thick; grains of the couscoussou are loose, this heavy ceiling crushes the dwelling, and do not adhere; they are made of all and seldom lasts long. sizes, from the smallness of oatmeal to the size of grains of rice. I look upon this dish as the best possible food for the people, for, besides the advantage of being easily procured and conveyed, it is also very nourishing, wholesome, and there. agreeable.

DOMESTIC BUILDINGS.

The doors are of a clumsy construction, and most of the locks at Tangier are made of wood.

The use of sewers and other important conveniences is almost unknown

THEIR SCIENCES.

As they have not the art of printing The architecture in Moorish, or Wes- is difficult to read their writing, on actern Arabia, resembles in nothing the an- count of the arbitrary form of the letters cient or modern Oriental. Far from they make, and from the want of vowels finding in the present Moorish architec- and punctuation: hence the people are ture that elegance and boldness which plunged in the grossest ignorance. I distinguish the ancient Arabian archi- met in this country only one person who tecture, all its works exhibit marks of the had heard any thing about the movement grossest ignorance. The buildings are of the earth. Their conjectures upon constructed without any plan, and seem- the planets, the stars, and motion of the ingly at random, and with such an igno- firmament, are exceedingly extravagant. rance of the first rules of the art, that in They have not the slightest idea of phy30me of the first houses I found the stair- sic. One of those who call themselves case without the smallest ray of light, so learned, seeing in my hand one day an that it was always necessary to burn artificial horizon filled with mercury to

In conse

make an astronomical observation, gave which forms the bottom of the Streight, me to understand, with a great deal of but of that part which is nearest on the importance, that it was an excellent south, and on the vacancy of which fell thing to kill vermin and insects with. the mountain or earthy mass which forHe shewed me how to apply it to the merly occupied the space that is now folds and seams of their clothes. This filled by the arm of the sea. was the most beneficial use to which he quence of this movement the perpencould employ mercury. dicular beds of granite have taken their The Moors confound astronomy with actual direction; but on the other side, astrology, and have a number of astrolo- as this compact granite seems to be of a gers. They have no knowledge of che- secondary formation, we may admit all mistry; but they have some pretended the possible directions in the beds, withadepts in alchymy. They are entirely out supposing any derangement posterior ignorant of medicine. As to arithmetic to their formation.

and geometry, their ideas are very con- On this bed or general basis of the fined. They have scarcely any poets, coast, the waves and the wind have and still fewer historians. They know accumulated other beds, of soft clay and nothing of their own history; and of of sand; they form the hills and the high the fine arts they have not the least conception.

Their only books consist of the Koran and its expositions. This sketch is unfortunately too faithful; and these climates may with propriety be called barbarian.

GEOLOGY.

The ground which forms the basis of the coast at Tangier is composed of different beds of secondary granite of a compact or fine granulated texture. These beds are inclined to the horizon, and form with it an angle of 50 to 70 degrees. They are generally one foot and a half to two feet thick; their direction runs from east to west, and their inclination, by which the angle is formed, is northerly.

mountains of the road to Tetuan. The vegetable and animal remains have made a bed of vegetable earth which covers the whole, and is extremely fertile.

At the southern parts of the bay at Tangier, on the sea shore, the easterly winds have formed by degrees great accumulations of sand; they represent already little hills, which successively contract the bay, and one day will shut it up entirely. These sands are actually shifting and contain no other substances which can unite them. Notwithstanding this peculiarity, a plant of a lily kind and several others are growing on them, of which I have preserved some specimens.

THE EMPEROR OF MOROCCO.

The cannon of the batteries of Tangier announced, on the 5th October, the arrival of the Sultan Muley Soliman, Emperor of Morocco, who dismounted at the castle of the town called Alcassaba. As I had not been yet presented to the Emperor, I did not go out, but remained at home waiting his orders, as I had settled with the Kaïd and Kadi; hence I could not witness the ceremony of his arrival. The next morning the Kaïd apprized me that I might get the customary presents ready for the following day;

The distance between the beds is commonly about two feet, and this space is filled with a sort of white and not very hard clay, which, taking the same direction, forms intermedial beds of a slaty texture. These beds of granite and clay are very little above the level of the sea; their highest point does not exceed thirty or forty feet; but their width is considerable, for they are exactly the same at the river of Tetuan, and at eight leagues distance. I have also remarked some I did so immediately, and on the mornbeds of granite advancing into the sea at a great distance, and taking the same direction.

If I were permitted to draw large inferences from small facts, I might say that the catastrophe which opened the Streights of Gibraltar was occasioned by a sudden sinking; not of the ground,

ing of the appointed day I had an interview with the Kaïd and Kadi, to prepare for my presentation. The Kaïd asked me for the rest of the presents which I intended for the Sultan ; I gave them to him, and we soon agreed upon the subject.

The Sultan came out soon after and

mounted his mule; when he came to the as I had as yet done nothing to merit centre of the circle, the Kaïd and myself it.

advanced a few steps; the Sultan stop- The Sultan asked me in what counped his mule. The Kaid presented me: tries I had travelled, what languages I I made an inclination with my head to- spoke, and if I could write them; what wards him, putting my hand on my breast. were the sciences which I had studied in The sultan answered by a similar incli- the Christian schools, and how long I natin, and said, "You are welcome;" had resided in Europe? He praised God then turning his head towards the crowd, for having caused me to leave the counhe invited them to salute me; "Tell try of the infidels, and regretted that a him," said he, "that he is welcome;" man like me had deferred so long his and instantly all the crowd exclaimed visit to Morocco; much satisfied that I "welcome." The Sultan spurred his had preferred his country to Algier, Tumule, and rode to a battery which was nis, or Tripoli, he repeated me the assurabout two huudred yards distant. ance of his protection and friendship. I followed the Kaïd thither, and wait- He then asked me whether I had any ined near the gate; the Kaïd, alone, ad- struments to make observations, and havvanced with the presents. From the ing answered him in the affirmative, he moment that we entered the battery, told me that he wished to see them, and there was a profouud silence. The whole that I might bring them to him. He assembly consisted of about twenty per- had hardly uttered this word, when the sons, most of them the high officers. Kaïd took me by the hand, in order to A moment after, the Kaïd called me; conduct me home; but without stirring, I followed him to the platform of the bat- I observed to the Sultan, that it would tery, which was a kind of terrace, situa- be necessary to wait until the next day, ted on the north towards the sea, and as it was too late to prepare them for any which was defended with nine pieces of observations. The Kaïd looked at me cannon of the largest size. At the eas- with astonishment, as no one dares to tern angle was a small house of wood, contradict the Sultan ; but this sovereign elevated some feet above the parapet, only said, Well, bring them to-morwith a small staircase of eight stairs. In- row." At what o'clock? "At eight in to this house the Sultan entered, and laid the morning;" I shall not fail, said I: himself down on a mattress on some and, taking leave of the Sultan, I went cushions. The Kaïd, two high officers, away with the Kaïd. and myself, left our slippers at the door, in order to present ourselves barefoot, which the usual ceremony required. The two officers placed themselves at my sides, each holding me by one of my arms; the Kaïd staid to the left, as if to form a sort of fence round me. We presented ourselves to the Sultan bowing, or rather bending half the body profoundly to him, and placing our right hands on our breasts.

66

The next day I went to the castle at the appointed hour. The Sultan was waiting for me, on the same place, with his principal Fakih or Mufti, and another favourite. He was served with tea.

When I came into his presence he bid me ascend the small stairs, and sit down at his side. He took the tea-pot, and poured some tea into a cup, and, having filled it up with milk, he himself presented it to me. He then called for pen and ink; The Sultan repeated to me his "wel- they brought him a scrap of indifferent come," and bid me sit on the stairs; the paper, a small horn ink-stand, and a pen officers withdrew, and the Kaïd kept made of a reed. He wrote a sort of standing. The Sultan told me, with prayer in four or five lines, which he some warmth, and with a tone of kind- gave to his Fakih to read, who observed ness, that he was very glad to see me; to him that a word was wanting. The he repeated several expressions of this Sultan took the paper back and added sort, laying his hand on his breast, in that word. Having finished his tea, his order to show me his sentiments both by Moorish Majesty presented me the writwords and by actions. I found this so- ing to read, and accompanied me as I vereign very favourably disposed towards read with his finger, pointing word by me, at which I was the more surprized, word. He corrected my pronunciation

when I made a mistake, as a master I ordered my electrical machine, and a I would do to his scholar. When I had camera obscura, to be brought in. I finished reading, he desired me to keep presented these to him as objects of mere the writing, and I have it still in my possession.

The tea-things consisted of a gold sugar-box, a tea-pot, a milk-pot, and three cups of white china, gilt; they were all placed on a gilt dish. The sugar was put in the tea-pot, according to the custom of the country, a method not very convenient, as it compels you most freqently to take it either too much or too little sweetened.

amusement, which had no scientifical application. Having prepared these two machines, I placed the camera obscura near the window. The Sultan got up, and went twice into the camera; I cov ered him with the baize all the while that he amused himself in contemplating the objects transmitted by it. That he permitted me to do so was a mark of his high confidence in me. He afterwards amused himself with seeing the electric The Sultan repeated to me several jar discharged, and had it often repeated; times indications of his regard to me. but what surprised him most was the He desired me to produce my instru- experiment of the electric shock, which I ments, and examined them one after another with much attention; asking me an explanation of every thing that was new to him. He shewed great pleasure in what he saw, and commanded me to make some astronomical observations in his presence. To satisfy him I took two heights of the sun with my multiplying circle; I shewed him several astronomical tables and logarithms which I had brought with me, in order to convince him that these instruments would be of no use to any one who did not understand these books and many others. He was very much surprized at the sight of so many figures. I then offered him my instruments; his answer was, that I ought to keep them, as I only knew how to use them, and that we should have plenty of days and nights to amuse our selves in contemplating the sky. I saw from these and the former expressions, that his intention was to keep me near his person, and to attach me to his serhe added, that he desired to see

was obliged to repeat a great many times; all of us holding ourselves by the hands in order to form the chain. He asked me many and various explications. of these machines, as also of the influence of electricity.

vice;

my other instruments. I proposed to bring them the next morning, and took my leave.

The next day I attended the Sultan, and went into his chamber; he was laying on a small mattress and cushion; his high Fakih and two of his favourites were sitting before him on a small carpet. The moment he saw me he raised himself upright, and ordered another small blue velvet cushion, like his own, to be brought for me; he had it placed at his side, and made me sit down.

After some compliments on both sides,

4K

I had sent the day before to the Sultan a telescope, and asked for it now, in order to adapt it to his sight, which I immediately did, and marked the exact place on the tube, after he had found the suitable distance.

I wore very long whiskers; the Sultan asked me why I did not cut them like other Moors; I told him that it was the custom in the east to wear them, at full length. He answered, "Well, well, but this is not the fashion here." He had some scissors brought in, and cut a little from his own; he then laid hold of mine, and shewed me what I ought to cut, and what to preserve; perhaps his first intention was to clip them himself, but, as I did not answer, he put down the scissors.

Continuing our conversation, he asked me whether I had a proper instrument for measuring heat. I promised to send one, and took leave, carrying along with me my instruments. I sent him the same day a thermometer.

In the evening, being at home, and in company with some of my friends, a servant arrived from the Sultan, and brought me a present from him. In delivering it to me he fell on his knees, and laid before me something covered with a cloth wrought with gold and silver. The curiosity of seeing the Emperor of MoMON. MAG, No. 286.